After our first project in NYC, we began our second and final project in the Big Apple with a completely different experience. Our first project was photography only, our hardest assignment in the history of our photojournalistic careers, capturing the work of a homeless mission. Then one day it all changed when we transitioned into our AirBNB shared apartment stay in the hip Park Slope area of Brooklyn to begin our work with the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN). The transition was like night and day, from poverty to abundance, within a matter of a few miles. It seemed like we were in India again, where the caste system divides the line of rich and poor seemingly randomly but truly ingrained in society to the point where it becomes acceptable, invisible.
With the project transition came evenings with a familiar face, as we were working for Juhu, one of Jordan’s former coworkers when he lived and worked in NYC a few years ago, a friend he turned into a passionate, worldwide wave rider after only one surf lesson at subway-assessable Far Rockaway Beach, where Jordan often went to escape the city. One of our evenings consisted of a fundraiser for the company Juhu and Jordan worked together for, Opportunity Agenda, where we were invited to a cocktail party and evening of comedy, awards, inspirational speeches and a performance by a real life superhero (@HelvetikaBold)! Other nights, Juhu and her husband, Jeff, invited us over to their nearby apartment to do our laundry, play with their cat Moonlight and eat delicious meals which would extend past midnight as we’d get caught up in conversation, laughter, beer tastings and, occasionally, work-related post-production video review sessions. In record time, we completed a whopping EIGHT videos in seven days for the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN) and we learned much more than we ever knew about the problem of human trafficking despite many worldwide video projects documenting the same issue. There is so much to learn about trafficking in order to know how to address the global issue in a harmless way, and we hope our video work with NYATN will not only reach audiences in New York, but the whole world.
The NY Anti-Trafficking Network is the first network of anti-trafficking service providers, policy advocates, and activists in New York State. The Network has provided direct legal and social services to several thousand survivors of human trafficking since 2002, and the network’s reach extends well beyond NY State. NYATN does a great job at shedding light on the problem of trafficking in persons, with the goal of ending and preventing trafficking, and providing survivors with the help they need to reclaim their lives and their voices. Watch this video to hear from the experts who make up NYATN and to hear about how they are tackling the problem of trafficking in persons in both New York and our nation.
In addition to the above video, we also produced a series of seven short educational videos, where experts share insight and advice on understanding survivors and ending trafficking. Check out the #talktraffic campaign by clicking here, which is an awesome effort to educate the general public on the problem of trafficking in persons. We also hope that these videos inspire people to become knowledgeable activists against human trafficking.
The videos we produced cover the following topics, click to link to the videos that most interest you:
- What is trafficking?
- The human rights approach
- Survivors sharing their voices
- Social services for survivors
- Legal services for survivors
- Solutions to trafficking
- What can you do?
We hope that these topics interest you and inspire you! If so, follow NYATN to get updates and to learn more about trafficking.
@NYATN #TalkTraffic
NYATN Facebook
Here is a sneak peek to the first video in the series, “What is Human Trafficking?”
As we helped NYATN create a campaign to educate the general public about human trafficking, we gained so much from them as to how we — Jordan and Cassie — need to challenge ourselves more by sharing with YOU — our missional year followers. As we challenged NYATN with creating a bigger and better campaign with the videos we produced for them, they challenged us and we accepted their challenge by creating brand new Agape Visuals Instagram and Twitter accounts where we hope to share less formal updates more often with those interested so that you can have more everyday glimpses of what we feel blessed to experience day after day. So, if you’d like to see more of the sights we see and the people we meet, follow our adventures on our new social media accounts.
#agapevisuals Follow @AgapeVisuals
Check out the Agape Visuals Instagram for pictures from our incredible five-day camping trip through the Thousand Islands in Upstate New York and Canada for our two-year anniversary.